City of Burlington history

In 1805 the first church, Congregational, was organized.

In 1808 the second steamboat in the world, the "Vermont", built by Capt.

The First Unitarian Church (1816) has a bell that duplicates the tone of the church’s original bell, which was cast by the American patriot Paul Revere.

In 1831 the Battery or "Camp Ground," as it was then called, was sold to private individuals.

The first land claim was made around December of 1835, when Moses Smith and William Whiting carved their names and date on trees near the present Standard-Press building on Pine Street.

In 1836 Daniel Rork made a claim to land on which much of the early settlement was built.

The first conception of Burlington was in 1842, when part of the present site of Burlington was granted to an Indian.

In 1850 it began to have all rail connections with the ocean, the great lakes and the St Lawrence.

The first county seat of county government was established in LeRoy in 1857 and was moved many times between Burlington, LeRoy and Hampden.

23, 1865, a portion of the Town, about one mile and a half in width, and extending along the shore of the Lake from the Winooski River, its northern boundary, to a line about six miles south, was chartered as a city.

In 1875 but two lumber marts surpassed it in the country, and while by reason of the devastation of our eastern forests, and the development of the great West, this trade has slowly decreased, our lumber interests today are by no means small.

The lumber industry began to decline in the early 1900's, and profound changes began to occur on the waterfront.

The Burlington Teen Tour Band, Canada’s Musical Ambassadors was formed in 1947 and to this day, musical festivals like the Sound of Music are a mainstay.

To support these activities, the shoreline of the Burlington waterfront (once a long, sandy crescent) was repeatedly filled and expanded: a process that would go on into the 1950’s.

The following account of the formation and development of Burlington was prepared by deriving information from the Burlington, Kansas, Centennial, September 30, October 1, 2, and 3 of 1957.

Burlington became a city in 1974 and a welcome place to raise a family.

By the mid-1980’s, the majority of the north waterfront was completely inaccessible: locked gates and barbed wire surrounded bulk petroleum tanks, scrap metal, old rail siding, abandoned rail cars, and rubble.

Millions of gallons of fuel were being shipped by water annually until the early 1990’s when trucking and rail became a more cost-efficient means of transport.

The area south of the Coast Guard would be developed into Waterfront Park, completed in 1991.

Wolf Creek Generating Station opened the Wolf Creek Lake (later renamed “Coffey County Lake” to the public for fishing in 1996 and also offers the Wolf Creek Ecological Education Area.

In 1999, the City removed 800 yards of macadam from under Lake Street, which was being rebuilt.

In 2000, the City constructed a Skate Park in an area formerly used for scrap metal storage.

In 2003, ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, opened at the site of the former Naval Reserve building next to the Boathouse.

In 2004, the Burlington Community Land Trust in partnership with other housing organizations constructed Waterfront Housing, an LEED-rated affordable housing project.

Seeding of the Astroline site was scheduled for 2005, but the site rebounded with natural cover, as did the dog park area several years earlier.

The City worked with Senator Leahy's office to secure funding through the US Army Corps, and the Underwater Cultural Resources Survey was completed in 2006.